


Take It Off

by Okobogee



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Horror, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Horror, M/M, Minor Character Death, One Shot, References to Sex, Short One Shot, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 12:54:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15413373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okobogee/pseuds/Okobogee
Summary: Things start getting a bit weird for Jihoon after the department store he works at gets a mysterious, very lifelike mannequin.





	Take It Off

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with another horror fic! This one's not as bad as [ Meat Me For Dinner ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12030612) or [ The Doll Maker ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11887815), I think but my warning still stands. If you're sensitive, I don't suggest you read this alone at night. There's no gore or graphic depictions of violence and the pace is pretty slow.
> 
> Also big thanks to Havokftw for helping me shape this thing from a vague idea to an actual piece of writing!

 

                   If Jihoon were to claim he loved his job, he'd be lying out of his ass. His job at the department store is mindless and tedious and definitely not what he'd had in mind when he was in high school but Jihoon is, above all, a realist and that meant burying his dreams of being a producer deep down and getting a "real job". He'd rather have a steady income and enough money to entertain his creative hobbies in his free time than scrape by on ramen -- he'd had enough of that in college thankyouverymuch. That being said, as soul-sucking as his job was, it had some perks. The 15% employee discount was one, and being able to dress the mannequins and come up with displays was another.

                  Jihoon had never been very adept socially and when you combined that with his preference to staying at home watching movies instead of going out to dinner and drinks with his co-workers had made him a bit of an outcast. Jihoon didn't really mind it but sometimes it meant ending up as the victim of cruel practical jokes planned and executed by his co-worker Myungsoo, who had obviously stayed on the level of an 18-year-old frat boy mentally despite being well in his thirties. The pranks had started out fairly harmless: stealing Jihoon's lunch, hiding his employee ID, locking him into the storage cupboard, but they'd gotten progressively worse. There was that one time when Myungsoo had broken into Jihoon's locker to put thumbtacks into Jihoon's work shoes before his shift started and that one time he had slipped powdered glue into Jihoon's cola.

 

Technically, taking care of the displays isn't in Jihoon's job description -- they belonged to the floor manager, who just so happened to be the lazy bastard known as Go Myungsoo. Myungsoo had delegated the responsibility to Jihoon. "It'll be a lot more efficient for you to do it seeing as you're usually the closer", Myungsoo had reasoned with him. "You're staying after the store closes anyway, and it'll be easier to work on the displays when the store is empty". Despite Myungsoo making a lot of sense, Jihoon was still mad about him shirking his responsibilities. After a while though, he ended up finding working on the mannequins a lot more enjoyable than he would've thought.

 

It is a slow Tuesday evening that finds Jihoon wandering the aisles aimlessly looking for something to tidy up when the doorbell to their back door rings. That door was reserved for employees and shipments only and seeing as it was a bit past 9 p.m, Jihoon figures it must be a co-worker who'd forgotten something when they left. Jihoon grumbles under his breath and drags himself through the back room. He punches in the security code and comes face-to-face with deliveryman standing there with two huge boxes on a pallet. "Uh........ can I.... help you?" Jihoon asks warily, taking in the deliveryman's appearance. He was tall and had sharp features. His skin is pale and has a slight, sickly green tint to it. He looks straight at Jihoon with dull, impossibly dark eyes that make Jihoon think of dead fish. They standd there for a while, just staring at each other until the deliveryman speaks in a deep, emotionless voice.

"Delivery."

"I'm sorry but there must be a mistake here. We get our deliveries every Friday morning." Jihoon replies, at which the deliveryman (Wonwoo, according to his name tag) just stares back at him impassively. Jihoon licks his lips nervously. He absentmindedly marks that Wonwoo is only wearing a t-shirt under his company overalls despite it being November. Granted, Busan doesn't get very cold in the winter, but it definitely isn't t-shirt weather either.  
  
"Listen uh... Wonwoo? I'm pretty sure there's a mistake here, none of our papers say that we're missing a delivery." Wonwoo stares and Jihoon wonders if he'd blinked at any point.  
  
"No mistake. Delivery. Take it" comes Wonwoo's reply and before Jihoon can say anything back, he turns and climbs back into his truck and drives off. Jihoon sighs and looks at the pallet. He steps closer and starts looking for the manifest that should been taped to one of the boxes but there is none. He sighs again, running his hands through his hair.  
  
"What the fuck am I supposed to do with this?" It's way too late for him to call the company in charge of their deliveries. Eventually he decides to take it in, just to make sure it doesn't get exposed to the elements and ruined -- he'd text his boss about it and she could figure it out in the morning.

 

* * *

 

 

Wednesday evening finds Jihoon coming into work feeling unusually chipper. His boss had called him earlier in the day, explaining that the boxes contained new mannequins to replace the older ones that had paint chipping off their faces. Jihoon had been begging for new mannequins for close to six months now, insisting that no matter how nice the display is, if the mannequins look run down and broken, anything he puts on them will look unappealing as well.

Opening the big cardboard boxes and digging through the bubble wrap for the disassembled parts of their new mannequins has Jihoon feeling like a kid on Christmas. The bigger box contains two standard-looking adult mannequins but the contents of the smaller one has Jihoon gasping for breath. Jihoon has never before in his life seen a mannequin so lifelike -- it looks more like a wax figurine belonging to Madame Toussauds' than something to be propped up on display in a Lotte Mart. Jihoon runs his eyes over the mannequin's features. "Are you sure you're a mannequin, hmm?" he asks the head cradled in his hands. The big doe eyes seem to be looking at him, as if the mannequin is also taking in Jihoon's features. Just to make sure, Jihoon runs his fingers over the mannequin's plump, pink lips. They look impossibly soft, but the material is cool and hard under his touch -- just like a mannequin should be. Intrigued, Jihoon makes sure to check the make of it from the bottom of its foot.

 

"Seungcheol, huh? Nice to meet you, my name's Jihoon" he giggles gently under his breath. "I've already seen you naked so you won't mind if I call you Cheollie, right?". Jihoon wonders at the little details on Seungcheol as he dresses it up -- it even has toe and fingernails! The rest of the shift passes quickly, as Jihoon busies himself with setting up the new mannequins on display. When he goes to bed that night, he falls asleep quickly, not plagued by his perpetual insomnia for once.

 

 

* * *

 

 

With the holiday season approaching, Jihoon's nights get a lot busier. The store is packed, swarming with people looking for gifts. Jihoon has to change the displays fairly often and even though he's in a hurry, he always pays extra care when he's changing Seungcheol's clothes -- a mannequin like that must've cost them a fortune and he doesn't want to be the one held responsible if it breaks. One night, as Jihoon's trying to carefully jank a pair of skinny jeans on Seungcheol, gently muttering nonsense to it, he notes that even his _ass_ is gorgeous. "I wonder if you've been modeled after an actual person... there's no way anyone would come up with a mannequin as pretty as you off the top of their head... They even gave you an ass that won't quit! Who makes mannequins like this!", he laughs incredulously. He stands up and straightens out Seungcheol's clothes for the last time and he could swear it looks like Cheollie's trying not to laugh. Jihoon reasons that it must've always looked like that but he didn't pay close enough attention to it. That night Jihoon dreams of an unsettling presence, and a piercing gaze fixed on him.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It's the middle of December and there's a cold front coming in. The weather forecast also promised a blizzard, something practically unheard of in Busan. Jihoon's stalling as he closes up the store, he can hear the wind howling in the corners of the empty department store and the needle on the thermometer has dropped from -2 degrees to -8 within the last two hours. Jihoon's bundling up the mannequins on the main display in warm clothing as he knows that with the cold front hitting Busan, everyone will be running over to buy winter clothes come morning.

 

"It's chilly out, Cheollie. I don't want you to catch a cold" he explains as he's wrapping the mannequin in a light blue scarf that's closer to a small blanket than an actual scarf.

 

As Jihoon is walking past Seungcheol on his way out, he notices that the mannequin has pivoted slightly, its chest now facing the direction of the staff entrance instead of straight ahead like it should. He figures that he forgot to lock the mechanism that keeps the torso in place, fixes it and then leaves.

 

Weeks pass and Jihoon notices that he's had to fix Cheol's position more than he did before. He wonders how such a high-grade mannequin can have such a flimsy locking mechanism that has broken so soon. He keeps it to himself though, he tried googling the company to see if he could order spare parts for Seungcheol, but it seems like the company that made it went belly up a year ago. He knows that they probably can't afford to buy a new mannequin, and he doesn't really want to replace Cheol. It's silly, but since Seungcheol is so lifelike, Jihoon sort of feels like it's a real friend to him -- he chatters to Cheol after closing, often venting about his lazy co-workers.

 

* * *

 

 

      After Christmas, Jihoon starts having trouble with sleeping again. He keeps waking up in the middle of the night, feeling like someone's watching him. On some nights he swears he gets waken up by someone whispering in his ear. He goes to the doctor to ask for some sleeping pills, but the doctor insists his troubles must be due to stress and suggests Jihoon see a therapist a few times to get to the bottom of it. Jihoon says he'll make an appointment but never does. His friend Jeonghan firmly believes the problem lies in Jihoon never getting laid so he sets him up on a blind date. The guy's handsome ( _but not as handsome as Seungcheol_ ) and once Jihoon finds himself in the bathroom of the restaurant, pretending it's Seungcheol's plump lips wrapping around his dick instead of his date's, he decides it's just a bit too weird. He fakes a phone call and runs off. He doesn't go on dates after that.

 

One evening when Jihoon thinks everyone else has already left, he decides to joke around a bit and takes a selfie with Seungcheol. He sends it captioned with "I finally got a boyfriend" to the group chat he shares with Jeonghan and some of his friends from college.  Jihoon's fun is ruined shortly by a sardonic remark from Myungsoo, though

 

"You've always been a freak but I didn't think you'd be pathetic enough to take selfies with the mannequins, Lee. What are you even doing with it, posting it on instagram and pretending it's your friend?"  
  
"Your shift ended 45 minutes ago, Myungsoo, why are you still here?"

 

"Had some paperwork to take care of."  
  
"Alright well fuck off already so that I can clean up" Jihoon sighs, suddenly bone-weary.

 

As Myungsoo passes by Jihoon and Seungcheol, he trips. There's a sickening crunch from where he tries to break his fall. He gets up, red in the face, cradling his wrist and clearly pissed off.

 

"You piece of shit! You broke my fucking wrist!"

 

"You tripped on your own feet, Myungsoo. I can hardly be blamed for you being uncoordinated."  
  
Myungsoo stares at Jihoon for a beat or two, fuming silently. Jihoon stares back, never one to step down, even if the top of his head doesn't come close to reaching Myungsoo's shoulder.

"Big mistake, Lee. Big mistake" Myungsoo says, before turning on his heel and slinking out. He hears the door open and breathes a sigh of relief only after he hears it click shut again. Looking down, he notices that the shoelaces on Cheol's left shoe have come undone.  
  
"Hm, he must've tripped on your shoelaces." Jihoon muses. He crouches down and starts tying them again. "I guess I should thank you. Seeing that asshole fall on his face really made my day." He straightens up again and smiles at the mannequin. "Well, I gotta go clean up and then I'm off for the night. See you tomorrow. Thanks for sticking up for me, Cheollie, you're a good friend".

That night Jihoon startles awake at 3 a.m, certain he'd heard a scream. He gets out of bed and peeks out of the window, thinking it must've been a drunkard. The streets are empty, though. For some reason he's too shaken up to go back to sleep, so he makes coffee and spends the rest of the night fiddling with Garage Band.

 

The day after Myungsoo's incident is the worst day Jihoon's had during the three years he's worked at Lotte Mart. His hour-long nap turns into three hours and he runs to work, almost an hour late. He gets invited to the manager's office as soon as he steps in, and gets thoroughly reprimanded for breaking Myungsoo's wrist as well as for being late. Five minutes before closing, a middle-aged woman barges into the store and then peruses the aisles at her leisure. When Jihoon tries to gently tell her to wrap it up because they were supposed to close over an hour ago, she blows up in his face, yelling about how the customer is always right. Unfortunately for Jihoon, that happens to be the night their manager is working alongside him on the closing shift and he gets reprimanded by her _again._ She tells him to take the rest of the week off and that she hopes he comes back to work with _"a more professional attitude"_ . When Jihoon gets home, he breaks down into frustrated sobs.

During his time off, Jihoon has no nightmares for the first time in months.

 

When Jihoon returns to work, he learns that there was a freak accident involving Myungsoo. Apparently one of the light fixtures above the main display fell down and a piece of metal got lodged in his neck. Since he was alone on shift, no-one was there to help and he bled out right there on the store floor. Somewhere deep inside, Jihoon's a little happy.

A few days later, Jihoon's changing Cheol's clothes and notices a bloody handprint on its chest. He knows it musts be Myungsoo's blood but he can't fathom how it got underneath its clothing -- he's seen one of the gruesome photos posted online and all of the mannequins had been fully dressed when Myungsoo died.

Little by little things go back to normal. Jihoon's nightmares return.  


 

* * *

 

 

Post holiday sales are well underway and despite the late hour, the store is packed. Hyped up kids run around wreaking havoc over the store and Jihoon runs around after them, trying to straighten things up. He's coming out of the toy aisle when and he sees it happen in slow-motion -- a pair of brothers bickering, the older one holding a black panther figurine above his head as the younger one jumps up and down, desperately trying to reach it. The younger brother's fingers nearly reach the figurine and the older one steps back, losing his footing and stumbling into the main display, knocking down all of the mannequins. Jihoon darts forward in panic, vaguely aware of being more worried about Seungcheol than the kids.

"Oh goodness, are you okay?" Jihoon asks the boy. He climbs back onto his feet and laughs -- actually laughs.  
"Haha yeah dude I'm fine"  
"You guys really need to be more careful, if one of those mannequins had fallen on you, you could've been seriously hurt!". Just as Jihoon's chiding the children, a woman who must be their mother runs up to them.  
"Hansol! Chan! What have I told you about running off like that?! I was worried sick!"  
The younger one has the decency to look at least a little bit remorseful. She grabs their hands in a huff and before she can start dragging them off, Jihoon pipes up.  
"Ma'am, could I please have your contact information? Your children knocked down these mannequins and we might need to ask you for compensation if they're broken, they're more expensive than you'd think" the woman agrees, albeit begrudgingly and drags her children out of the store.

Jihoon hastily picks up the mannequin parts strewn all over the floor and retreats into the storeroom with them. To be honest, he couldn't give a flying fuck about the two other mannequins, no matter how expensive they were. He checks Cheol thoroughly with a lump in his throat and finds that the metal locking mechanism in one of his arms is bent out of shape so badly that there's no way they'll be able to use that arm anymore. Jihoon disassembles one of the older mannequins they still keep lying around and gives Cheol one of their arms.

"There. All better."

 

Jihoon starts finding gifts in his locker. First it's snacks; a chocolate bar here, a bottle of cola there, but the items start getting more expensive -- there's a supreme t-shirt, a silver pinky ring with an engraving on it, a thin chain bracelet. Jihoon's weirded out by it, he's certain someone's playing a prank on him so he stays mute on it, shoves the gifts to the very back of his locker and goes about his days as if it never happened.  
A few weeks pass until his boss calls all of their employees in at the same time -- says it's time for impromptu locker searches. Apparently people's things have been going missing. Jihoon feels his heart starting to beat faster -- it's the gifts, it's got to be the gifts. Someone's been stealing from the other employees and putting items in his locker to frame him. He thinks about Soojin, she'd been flirting with Jihoon for at least a year and didn't take it well when Jihoon turned her down. When it's his turn to open the locker, he fumbles with the keys, thinking about how he'll certainly be fired when they find all the crap shoved to the very back of his locker but when he swings the metal door open there's only a change of clothes, a can of deodorant and his wallet and keys inside. He tries not gape. They end up finding everything in Soojin's locker and she's fired. Jihoon feels relief mostly. He knows he should feel bad for her but he really, really doesn't.

After Soojin's gone, Jihoon gets promoted to shift manager. His work hours change and he's no-longer the closer. The job's a lot less hands on and there's a lot of paperwork. Jihoon misses the mannequins and sometimes he goes up to Cheol before the store's open and fusses with his clothes and his hair -- the new floor manager isn't as thorough as Jihoon was and it kind of annoys him.

 

* * *

 

 

It's May and his manager calls another employee meeting. The higher-ups have decided to put out an exclusive line of luxury clothing and they want the Busan branch to be the first store to go through the overhaul -- the clothing section will be completely remodeled and they'll receive brand new mannequins. The new ones are black and sleek with no discernible human features. Apparently they're _chic_. The old mannequins are to be sold half-off to some other store. Jihoon panics. When his shift is ending, he sneaks a big plastic bag from the cleaning cupboard and hastily disassembles Seungcheol and stuffs the parts into the bag.

 

That night he wakes up again with the feeling of being watched. At first he gets startled by the shadowy figure standing in the corner of his room but then he remembers that he smuggled Cheol home. Just as he's about to go back to sleep, he hears a weird sound -- like something heavy being dragged across the floor. He looks around, bewildered and notices Cheol at the foot of his bed. A coldness grips his heart and as he holds his breath and stares at the mannequin, he thinks he sees it blink. Then it opens it's mouth and smiles a gummy smile.

**_"I wonder, does your head come off too?"_ **

 

 


End file.
